Primary Pay Agent   3

Requirement Background Information, Purpose, and Objective:

The Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) established Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) as a federal corporation to encourage the growth of defined benefit pension plans, provide timely and uninterrupted payment of pension benefits, and keep pension insurance premiums at a minimum. PBGC is not funded by general tax revenues. PBGC collects insurance premiums from employers that sponsor insured pension plans, earns money from investments, and receives funds from pension plans it takes over. PBGC manages its investment assets under an Investment Policy Statement (IPS) mandated by the Board of Directors (Board). The Board consists of the Secretaries of Labor, Commerce, and Treasury, with the Secretary of Labor as Chairman.

The PBGC administers two separate insurance programs. The Multiemployer Program protects about 10.9 million workers and retirees in about 1,360 pension plans. The Single-Employer Program protects about 22.7 million workers and retirees in about 23,900 pension plans. The assets and liabilities of the Multiemployer and Single-Employer programs are separate.

The Multiemployer Program covers defined benefit pension plans that are created through one or more collective bargaining agreements between employers and one or more employee organizations or unions. The employers are usually in the same or related industries, such as transportation, construction, mining, and hospitality. PBGC provides financial assistance to insolvent plans to allow them to pay guaranteed benefits and reasonable administrative expenses. In FY 2021, PBGC provided $230 million in financial assistance to 109 multiemployer plans.

The Single-Employer Program covers defined benefit pension plans that generally are sponsored by a single employer. When an underfunded single-employer plan terminates, PBGC takes over the plan's assets, administration, and payment of benefits up to the legal limits. In FY 2021, PBGC paid approximately $6.4 billion in benefits to more than 970,000 retirees across more than 5,000 single-employer plans.

The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) maintains its own pension recordkeeping system and benefits administration infrastructure for more than 1.5 million participants. The system packages payment changes (adds and updates) and transmits them to the Primary Paying Agent's (PA) pension payment system several times each month.

The purpose of this Synopsis/Pre-Solicitation is to notify potential Offerors that PBGC intends to solicit proposals via a Request for Proposal (RFP) to select a single contractor to provide Primary Pay Agent Services to disburse about 860,000 benefit payments each month totaling approx. $48.33M per month, or about $5.8 billion annually to retirees in over 5,000 terminated private-sector single-employer defined benefit pension plans.

The PA will be tasked with performing the gross-to-net calculation, manages federal income tax withholdings, deposits, and reporting, manages exception processing associated with payments (stop and reissue checks, ACH notice of change, returns, reclamations, adjustments), supports financial management activities associated with benefit payments, provides PBGC users access to their pension payment system and provides PBGC retirees access to their retiree self-service system via Web services. The PA contract is overseen by the Benefit Payments Division (BPD) of the Participant Services Department (PSD) within the Office of Benefits Administration (OBA).

OBA currently has a contract in place for a Primary Pay Agent, the need for a Primary Pay Agent is an ongoing requirement and therefore, the existing contract is being recompeted.

The anticipated period of performance is one (1) five-year base period and five (5) twelve-month option periods.

Request for Proposal (RFP) Release Information:

This is a Synopsis/Pre-solicitation notice. Please note that this is not a solicitation for proposals, proposal abstracts, or quotations.

The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) anticipates issuing a solicitation (Request for Proposals (RFP) on or about July 11, 2022. The RFP is anticipated to be issued via full and open competition under NAICS Code: 541519 Other Computer Related Services. The government anticipates awarding a Firm Fixed Price (FFP) contract.

PBGC will issue the solicitation and its amendments on the System for Award Management (SAM) website at https://sam.gov. All responsible sources may submit a proposal in response to the RFP and attachments. Responsible sources must be registered in the System for Awards Management (SAM) database located at https://www.sam.gov at the time an offer is submitted in accordance with FAR Subpart 4.1102: Policy to be eligible for an award.

Prospective Offerors are advised that this procurement is subject to internal PBGC approvals and the availability of funds. This synopsis/pre-solicitation notice is NOT a Request for Proposal (RFP) and in no way obligates the Government to issue an RFP and/or award a contract. This notice satisfies the synopsis requirement in FAR 5.2. If a solicitation is issued, all necessary information will be supplied at the time it is posted at https://sam.gov. Questions/requests for information will not be responded to until RFP issuance. Interested parties are responsible for monitoring SAM for the most up-to-date information concerning the forthcoming solicitation. Paper copies of the solicitation and its amendments will not be distributed.